Not Too Shabby Miss Ksenia Makarova

As much as I enjoy watching the battle on the podium, I love to spot potential break out skaters who can make a future impact.

Remember Tatiana Malinina at 98 Nagano (8th)...! She would eventually come out of no where and dominant the 99 Figure Skating Season.

I think Ksenia Markova might just fit that role. Not only did she skated a wonderful SP, I see potential for her to make some movements in the coming years.

Clean lines, straight forward jumps, simple-to-watch skating. Dick Button would be jumping up and down for that. Simple, No-Bull skating, which is so hard to get now adays!

She's not a super star by any means, but her solid, strong basic skating impressed me alot. She has a little sass (as noted by Weir....), and doesn't stare at the floor when she performs. I actually prefer her style of her fellow countrymen, Leonova.

What also stood out to me is that she wasn't one of the super-arm moving everywhere Euro/Russian skaters we get often. She was control and "Easy" to watch. She still has the LP to go through, but I like what I saw, and think she can raise through the ranks soon.

Any one else on board? Can't wait till the FP!

PS.... Elena Gedevanishvili not rank in the Top 5??? Hmmmmm... I would have had her 4th...IMO

Speaking of Elene G, I remember that after Torino in 2006, Johnny picked her to win these Olympics. She went downhill, but has pulled herself back up... if not THAT high.

I thought Ksenia Makarova looked good too... but then came a lot more good skaters and I kind of forgot about her. And there were a lot of good ones I didn't even see. (Thanks for nothing, NBC.) So she has a ways to go before she really stands out in the crowd, but so far so good.

Is one of the two accreditation cards that Johnny had hunging from his neck when the international coverage showed him standing at the rinkside, the red one on top, one for Russian Federation? Or is the color just random? I noticed many other coaches and supporting people had green ones, including Frank Carroll, Zmievskaya and Petrenko.

I liked Ksenia very much ,( but I do like Leonova, too).. I'm really looking forward to how she develops in future. I find I'm very drawn to many Russian skaters a bit down the ranks, and I'm hoping their federation doesn't try to mould them too much in the image of this one or that one, but helps to bring out their own expression.

I like Ksenia very much and thought she did well on Tuesday. I also was impressed by Min-Jung Kwak and Cheltzie Lee. They both have just turned 16 and Kwak is flexible, elegant, with good spins and nice jumps while Cheltzie is a powerful jumper with good presence. These three ladies, and Mirai of course, appear to have a bright future ahead of them